Publisher Description

With the release of the census figures in 2000, Latino America has since been anointed the future driving force of American culture. The emergence of Spanglish as a form of communication is one of the more influential markers of an America gone Latino. Spanish, present on this continent since the 15th century, when Iberian explorers sought to colonize territories in Florida, New Mexico, Texas, and California, has become ubiquitous in the last few decades. The nation's unofficial second language, it is highly visible on several 24-hour TV networks, and on more than 200 radio stations across the country. But Spanish north of the Rio Grande has not spread in its pure Iberian form. On the contrary, a signature of the brewing "Latin Fever" that has swept the US since the mid-1980s is the astonishing creative linguistic amalgam of tongues used by people of Hispanic descent, not only in major cities but in rural areas as well: neither Spanish nor English but a hybrid, known only as Spanglish. • Includes a controversial translation into Spanglish of the first chapter of the literary classic, Don Quixote de la Mancha.

Author Biography

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five College—40th Anniversary Professor at Amherst College. Ilán Stavans nació en México, en 1961. Cursó estudios de posgrado en la Universidad de Columbia, y ahora tiene la cátedra Lewis-Sebring de cultura latina y latinoamericana en Amherst College.

Description for Teachers/Educators

Complete with over 6,000 entries, this marvelous linguistic guide by award-winning author Ilan Stavans explains why the emergence of Spanglish is a viable and important marker of the Latino community's influence on American culture.

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